Paladin
:For related articles, see Category:Paladins The paladin is a Holy Warrior hybrid class. Their primary role is a melee fighter and secondary healing class. Paladins have the ability to play a variety of different roles, including DPS (Retribution), Tanking (Protection), and Healing (Holy). They can cast auras and blessings that provide useful buffs for other players while withstanding heavy physical damage with plate armor. Paladins are currently a defensive class designed to outlast their opponents until patch 2.3 is released which fixes the Retribution Tree. Background The paladins are the virtuous defenders of the weak and tireless enemies of the undead. Mixing elements of the warrior and the priests of the Holy Light, the paladin is a tough melee fighter. The tradition of the Holy Light is unique to a few of the Alliance races and the blood elves of the Horde. The paladin is a warrior of the Holy Light. He upholds all that is good and true in the world and reviles all that is evil and sinister — especially undead and the Burning Legion. He offers succor to the beleaguered and smites his enemies with holy fervor. He is particularly potent against undead, as these creatures threaten the goodly races and the Holy Light burns them terribly. The presence of any evil is reprehensible to the paladin, but he focuses his efforts on destroying undead and demons. These warriors uphold the tenets of the Holy Light and defend the Alliance from the predations of the Horde. Found in almost every corner of Azeroth fighting the forces of evil and barbarism, these stalwart warriors of faith ceaselessly uphold their vigil against demonic forces from beyond the Dark Portal. Humans and Ironforge dwarves are the most likely to become paladins, as these races revere the Holy Light. The paladin order, also called the Knights of the Silver Hand, grew out of humanity’s culture, and its greatest heroes and fiercest proponents are humans. Ironforge dwarves possess the toughness needed to withstand the onslaught of the paladins’ many enemies. High elves rarely become paladins. Paladins are the embodiments of goodliness. They help the innocent and punish the wicked. As such, all paladins are of good alignment. During the second war, some paladins' eyes glowed with inner power of the Light, such as the paladin Turalyon. This is not the case for all paladins, though it occurs in game with certain paladin armor sets. Some are Retribution Paladins, auradins, or are sun paladins. Some are known as paladin warriors (who sometimes become epic paladin warriors). Some paladins choose to become exemplars, and templars. History The Knights of the Silver Hand was the original paladin order, the Silver Hand was formed in the Second War and was at its height until the time of the Plague. As paladins were immune to the Plague (and indeed all diseases), many members of the order survived the initial push of the Scourge. Unfortunately, the corrupted Arthas Menethil killed many paladins upon his return (including Uther the Lightbringer), leaving only a scattered few. The Order of the Silver Hand still exists but it's only a shadow of its former glory. Following the invasion of the Scourge, many of the order's paladins joined a zealous group of followers of the Light known as the Scarlet Crusade. After leaving the Crusade, some paladins decided to join the Argent Dawn. In a World of Warcraft questline, Tirion Fordring vows to restore the original order. Others fled south, to the Kingdom of Stormwind. The paladin order, still referring to themselves as the Order of the Silver Hand, now thrives under their new leadership at the Cathedral of Light in Stormwind City. Over time, the followers of the Holy Light spread their philosophy to the dwarves of Ironforge who soon adopted the tenets of the order as well. The Blood Knights are a paladin order within the blood elves. The Vindicators are paladin order within the draenei. Paladins don't have to be "good" as seen by the Scarlet Crusade and others - however, they do have to believe they are good or have faith in a cause. Overview Paladins also have several Undead-specific abilities such as Exorcism, Holy Wrath and Turn Undead which make them very effective when fighting Demon and Undead targets (not including Forsaken players). In PvP the paladin's most well-known strength is his ability to outlast his opponent(s). With plate armor, their ability to heal themselves, and a near-complete invulnerability every few minutes, he's a hard target to take down. They can also do a surprising amount of burst-damage and have good access to stun abilities. They also make great supporting characters, buffing and healing team-mates while being able to survive the enemy's attention. On the downside, most of their abilities are buffs that can be dispelled. Their plate does not help them against spellcasters and they are also quite vulnerable to spells and abilities that shut down a magic school, since all their magic is of the Holy school. In PvE raid environments paladins are good but not great melee DPS fighters. Their DPS is not the lowest but is not among the highest either. This issue is will be addressed in patch 2.3 http://www.wowinsider.com/tag/Patch-2.3/. With this Paladins will finally resemble the true original DPS "Holy Warrior" Paladins as portrayed in Paladin lore, Warcraft II: Tides of Darkness, Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos, and Warcraft III: The Frozen Throne. The most notable DPS paladins are Arthas Menethil and Uther the Lightbringer. The paladin's current strengths in PvE are healing and tanking. The paladin has some of the most mana-efficient and low-threat healing spells in the game, allowing them to be the main healer of the tank in a group. This unfortunately has caused players of other classes to typecast paladins as merely "Priests in Plate". Which is unfortunate for Paladins primary ability is melee not healing. Their healing efficiency makes them great endurance healers, though they are completely lacking in the group-healing area (healing several group members at the same time) and healing over time. The only paladin spell that can heal multiple targets simultaniously is the Judgement of Light, and this will not heal non-melee classes. This typically means that the tank and DPS members of the group must be more careful of aggro management when a paladin is healing. Paladins also make good tanks. One strength of paladin tanks in raids is that they can become virtually immune to crushing blows with the right talents and skill use. They also excel at tanking multiple mobs at the same time. This is compensated by a somewhat lower durability compared to warrior tanks. Races The paladin class can be played by the following races: Alliance * Dwarves * Humans * Draenei Horde * Blood Elves Blood Elf Paladins belong to the Order of Blood Knights, while Human and Dwarven Paladins are usually from the Knights of the Silver Hand. Currently, Draenei Paladins are members of an organization called the Hand of Argus, but this may change with time as the Draenei are now part of the Alliance and some may consider joining the Silver Hand. Weapons and armor From the start, paladins can wear cloth, leather, or mail armor, and can train to wear plate armor at level 40. They may use a shield. They can summon their own Warhorse at level 40 (which they can obtain for 90 silver from a trainer), which can be quested to an epic Charger at level 60. They can use the following melee weapons (either innately or via a Weapon master trainer): *1H Swords *2H Swords *1H Maces *2H Maces *1H Axes *2H Axes *Polearms Paladins cannot dual wield. They also cannot use ranged weapons. This includes: *Wands *Guns *Bows *Crossbows *Thrown weapons For ranged damage, a paladin has several limited options: *Taking the Engineering profession in order to obtain limited ranged capabilities such as dynamite, bombs, and trinkets. *:One notable option for a paladin who specializes in Gnomish Engineering is the Gnomish Death Ray, since a paladin's invulnerability shield prevents the player from taking the damage normally associated with using this item. (Note: Blizzard has mentioned that this will no longer work in past patch notes, although it has not been changed yet. Actually, they noted that while in blessing of protection if the trinket fails and backfires, you will still take damage, however you do not take damage while casting it, and nothing official has been stated on this topic.) *A ranged trinket such as ; it has a 3 minute cooldown, or which has a 30 minute cooldown *Non-Engineering explosives such as EZ-Thro Dynamite or EZ-Thro Dynamite II *Using Judgement in combination with a seal (see below) allows for a limited range attack similar to (but more limited than) a Druid's Moonfire *Spending Talent Points in the Holy tree to acquire the spell Holy Shock *Spending talent points in the Protection tree to acquire Avenger's Shield *Using Hammer of Wrath on an enemy with less than 20% of their health left *Blood Elf paladins can also use their racial ability, Mana Tap, to have some limited pulling of mana-based mobs ;See also: :Formula:Mana regen & Shields :Compendium of the best Paladin's weapons Abilities A Paladin's play a key role in buffing their allies. They also have a few other spells that complete the class' arsenal. Auras In addition to spell buffs, a paladin can also boost their group's abilities through the use of auras. Only one aura may be active per paladin, but multiple paladins can use different auras within a group (although two paladins using the same aura gain no additional effect). The auras themselves cost no mana to operate, have no innate cooldown, and may be switched between at will. Blessings Blessings are spell buffs that can be used on the paladin or other characters. Most can be cast on any friendly target but some are limited to the paladin's party. Blessings last 10 minutes unless noted. Seals Seals are short-term self-buffs which boost the Paladin's power temporarily. Effectively, they add a weapon proc to their melee strikes. Additionally, Paladins can unleash these seals upon an enemy with Judgement. Each type of seal will have a different effect when unleashed. Paladin's primary stats This is a list of the paladin's primary stats, not necessarily in order of importance; that is left up to the player based upon his goal and play style. See Paladins: Tips and Advice for further information. Talents Paladin talents are split into 3 categories: * Holy * Protection * Retribution Talent builders can be found at: * Official Blizzard site * WorldofWar.se * WoW Vault * ThottBot * Merciless * Wowhead * WoW Den's Talent Calculator End-Game Expectations Paladin]] General Paladin Tips #People will expect you to heal if you don't have a priest, druid, or shaman in your party. After all, you are the only other class that can heal. However, Shadowpriests, and Elemental Shamans generally have more healing abilities than offspec Paladins because they work off of Spell Damage instead of melee or avoidance stats. #When buffing start by buffing yourself and then the rest of the party, that way you will know that when your blessing runs out it's time to buff everyone again. #In instances give casters Blessing of Salvation unless they explicitly request something else. It saves them from attracting aggro which could cause a wipe. #Flash of Light is mana efficient. Holy Light is time efficient (despite the 2.5 second cast) when considering it heals four times the amount of Flash of Light. While Flash of Light may constitute the majority of your heals, Holy Light is frequently a necessity such as on a tank during a boss fight, or to heal anyone who is being attacked in PvP. #If there are two or more paladins in your group, decide on who will do what auras. Consider that Improved Concentration Aura reduces the duration of counterspells and of other silence effects. # Three paladins should suffice for raids of any size (for blessing purposes), assuming that two of the blessings are castable by two of the paladins. In groups (raid or not) with more than one paladin, consider this buffing scheme: ## Blessing of Sanctuary on tanks; Blessing of Might on melee dps; Blessing of Wisdom on casters ## Blessing of Light on tanks; Blessing of Salvation on dps and any casters ## Blessing of Kings on everyone #Do not cast Blessing of Protection on a tank unless there is another tank ready to pick up the aggro that the first tank drops. Blessing of Protection and Divine Shield drop all threat to 0 from the recipient of the bubble for the duration. The threat value will return when the bubble goes away (from user cancellation or the duration was finished. With Blessing of Protection, you cannot make any melee attacks through the bubble, which is the only way a warrior can develop aggro. For a paladin tank, we need the enemy attacking us to develop aggro. You can still cast through Blessing of Protection however, so it is acceptable to cast it on AoE casters. # If you are the healer of the tank in a raid that should be your only job. If you find yourself continually healing the other members in the group it is usually one of two problems. Either the tank is not generating enough aggro or the DPS group is not watching what they are doing and dealing too much DPS and pulling the aggro off of the tank. This usually leads to a group wipe. # Make sure your melee hit base is 142, w/precision: 95, w/weapon expertise: 87, with both: 40. Then work on attack power and crit. High attack power and crit are no good if you cannot hit your enemy 100% of the time. Your spell hit base should be 202.http://blessingofkings.blogspot.com/2007/07/hit-caps-for-bosses.html Tanking Tanking is made viable by increased aggro and mitigation talents, the use of Spiritual Attunement for longevity, Consecration and a taunt in the form of Righteous Defense. The Paladin is almost as good (if not on par depending on gear) as a Warrior at main tanking and is the best multi-mob tank, as a great deal of their threat is based on reflective and AoE damage. DPS "Holy Warrior" thumb|Paladin in full Judgement set. The Retribution tree, primarily Sanctified Crusader and Crusader Strike, allows for increased damage. Utility from judgements is also valued, albeit situational. Currently, until patch 2.3, this is the least used role for paladins in the raid environment due to lack of itemization, generally weak or unnoticeable utility, and the lack of melee spell interruption. But it is the most used tree when leveling and soloing. In patch 2.3 Blizzard will release a revamped Retribution tree that will address this issue. http://www.wowinsider.com/tag/Patch-2.3/ They will be greatly increasing sustained DPS and giving Retribution Paladin's more raid utility. They will also address their threat problems with a threat modifier in fanaticism because the Paladin is the only class without an innate negating threat talent (Blessing of Salvation doesn't count, as it can also be cast on others). It is expected that quite a few Holy paladins will switch back to Retribution after patch 2.3 is released. Retribution paladins will finally be viable and be invited into more raids for DPS slots. This is something that will upset quite a few ego's of other DPS classes when they have to vie for DPS slots in raids with Retribution paladins. Healing A Paladin is valued in raids for the buffs they bring, their ability to cleanse. In raids, when not specced or geared to rival other dps classes, or not specced and geared well enough to tank, we are usually used as a healer. Paladin healing is valued in that it is very mana efficient, if not the most powerful; the quick, smaller, low-threat heal of Flash of Light, which is often spammed group-wide, fills a niche in healing. Quests Paladins have several class-specific quests which allow the character to learn valuable spells. See the Paladin Quests page for an outline of these quests. Patch 2.3 changes *Blessing of Light: Lower ranks of Flash of Light and Holy Light are now properly penalized when used with this Blessing. *Cleanse and Purify range increased to 40 yards. *Crusader Strike (Retribution) cooldown reduced from 10 to 6 seconds. *Exorcism mana cost reduced. *Hammer of Wrath mana cost reduced. *Holy Wrath mana cost reduced. *Improved Seal of the Crusader (Retribution) benefits folded into the base spell. This talent now gives the benefits of the Sanctified Crusader talent instead. *Judgement of Light: The combat log will now show the mana gained from rank 5 of this ability as Judgement of Light instead of Seal of Light. *Pursuit of Justice (Retribution) is now 3 ranks and increases movement speed by 5/10/15% and also reduces the chance you'll be hit by spells by 1/2/3%. *Sanctified Crusader (Retribution) renamed Sanctified Seals, which now increases your chance to critically hit with all spells and melee attacks by 1/2/3% and reduces the chance your Seals will be dispelled by 33/66/100%. *Vengeance (Retribution) duration increased from 15 to 30 seconds. *Vindication (Retribution) frequency and duration increased and now reduces all attributes by 5/10/15%, not just Strength and Agility. *Weapon Expertise (Protection) renamed Combat Expertise, now increases expertise by 1/2/3/4/5 and total Stamina by 2/4/6/8/10%. *Fanaticism will now reduce threat caused by all actions by 6/12/18/24/30%, in addition to its current effect of course.http://www.wowinsider.com/ See also *See Paladin races for paladins by race. *See Paladin list for notable paladins of various races from lore. *See Paladins: Tips and Advice for further advice and tips on the Paladin's varying roles. *See the Paladin Category for further information on the Paladin class. **Paladin Armor Set Comparison *Statistics of paladins from Warcraft II * Divine Magic *Spell Damage Coefficients External links * Paladin Guide * Geld's Paladin Guide * Tankadin Guide by Gestalt *Paladin Talent Guide (Levels 1-30, all specs) *Paladin DPS Calculator - Simulates long term paladin DPS based on selected Seal and stats. Still in Beta. *The Light and How to Swing It - weekly paladin feature at WoW Insider Category:Classes Category:Paladins Category:WoW Classes